By CHRIS REDMAN /EDITOR, TIME ATLANTIC

ournalism may be the first draft of history, but rarely is breaking news so pregnant with historic expectations as last week's referendum in Northern Ireland. One of the world's longest-running conflicts, a struggle still faintly ringing with the clash of swords at the Battle of the Boyne 300 years ago, came down to a casting of ballots on a plan for peaceably living together. That so dramatic a turnabout has been telescoped into his own stint covering the scene is what astonishes London bureau chief Barry Hillenbrand the most.

"On my first reporting visit to Belfast six years ago, leaders of the two sides were a million miles apart," he recalls, noting that in his first interview with Gerry Adams, the ardent nationalist and Sinn Fein president "defended armed struggle with all the mental agility of a Jesuit explaining a point of theology." Last week, Hillenbrand could only marvel at such sights as Adams amiably chatting with Mo Mowlam, Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary. "But as someone in Derry told me last week, the 'unthinkable' has become common."

Though the big picture is what rightly captured his imagination, few international journalists are as well placed as Hillenbrand to understand the details and personalities involved. A veteran TIME reporter for 31 years, he knows just about every major player in the republican and unionist ranks. Typically, though, Hillenbrand is modest about his wide range of sources. "I'm pretty proud of the telephone numbers in my book, but the great thing about Ireland is that the people love to talk. Indeed, they often talk too much. The trick is to get them to cut to the heart of things. Also, this is a small place where everyone knows everyone else."

To know is not necessarily to trust, of course. In the four years since the Irish Republican Army first announced its ceasefire in Ulster, the "peace" process produced almost as much turbulence as what went before: the London Docklands bombing of 1996, spates of revenge killings and all the agonies of bringing parties to the negotiating table. Having covered those events, Hillenbrand is convinced that the chance for a real modus vivendi is at hand. "To see these former archenemies at the same Belfast hotel is to know that, despite all the problems, the place is on the mend." The Irish sense of humor is a great asset today, he says, and matching an interview subject pint for pint "is now the most dangerous duty in Northern Ireland."